


He's a Friend

by Mystical_Light6



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Broken Wings, Castiel and Bees, Castiel's Trenchcoat, Crazy Castiel, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gardens, Gen, Hugging, Metaphors, Talking, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 15:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2393903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystical_Light6/pseuds/Mystical_Light6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jody finds a strange man sitting in her yard, watching a beehive</p>
            </blockquote>





	He's a Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Another story sitting on my computer. Maybe I'll get all of them posted one day. 
> 
> This takes place just before the season 7 finale, give or take a week. Enjoy.

Within the last couple of years there weren't many things that bothered Jody Mills, acting sheriff of the town of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She had a family and then lost it all in one fell swoop. She had some friends, a few cousins scattered around the country. Hell, she'd seen the dead rise and she'd heard the sounds of a monster devouring the woman lying in a hospital bed directly next to her.

No, Jody was a tough, seasoned broad which was why she'd stopped at the doorway between her kitchen and backyard as a man in a tan over coat sat with his back facing her, in her garden, staring up at a hive hanging precariously from a tree’s lowest branch.

Making sure she was properly armed, Jody took careful steps to walk up to the strange man whom she had definitely never met before and moved around him so she could properly see his face. The first thing she noticed about him were the white pocket-less scrubs he wore beneath his ratty coat.

His face lowered from looking up and the next thing she saw were his eyes. They were deep and old and...lost.

"What are you doing here?" Jody asked curiously.

The man's eyes saw only the gun and it took Jody a minute to remember she still had it raised before she lowered it and crouched down to his level. The guy practically folded in on himself before mumbling (probably to himself) that he was "Following the bee's path."

His voice surprised her - it was deeper than she'd imagined and more gravelly.

"What's your name?" she asked, now sitting fully in front of him.

"Castiel. And you are Jody Mills and this is your home."

"That's right..." Jody said, her nerves suddenly ratcheting upward.

He nodded before looking upwards towards the hive again as if it was some fascinating piece of crap reality tv show. Castiel...Castiel...why did that name sound familiar?

"I can hear what you are thinking," he said, still looking up.

Lowly, Jody asked, "And what am I thinking?"

"That you have heard of me or at the very least of my name,” he said, looking at her again. “I do not know where you would have heard it though, unless you have been in contact with my friends."

"And your friends are?"

"Sam and Dean Winchester and Bobby Singer. And Meg - but she is a demon and I do not think you have ever met her under any circumstances."

Oh. _That_ Castiel. Right. Bobby mentioned him as "one of the three idjits trying to keep the world turning."

Castiel closed his eyes and chuckled.

"Idjits," he said before looking down at his hands and Jody could swear she saw a drop land on his palm. With a sniffle, he muttered, "I miss Bobby."

"I miss him too," Jody found herself saying, crossing her legs beneath her as she continued sitting down on the dirt right along with him.

"He was a good man. He took care of me once when I was injured. I couldn't heal his legs during the Apocalypse though; Crowley had to do that. It still brings me much shame that a demon would be the one to heal my friends' mentor. I don't think Bobby ever had cause to even want me around. I have done nothing but cause pain since my initial landing upon this planet of my Father. If He even does exist, the thought of which I am slowly losing more and more faith in."

"Hey now, don't say that," Jody said, patting him on the shoulder.

Castiel looked at her, practically through her, and said, "It's the truth, but I don't think we're supposed to talk about it. Like the porn."

"Okay, whatever that means," Jody said while shaking her head, "Castiel, you are supposed to be here. Your father, whoever that is, he loves you."

Castiel sucked in his lips and his shoulders began shaking. Jody crawled closer to him and wrapped her hands around him, pulling him into a tight hug. Castiel jerked away and looked her up and down.

"What, what are you doing?"

"I'm - I'm hugging you. Have you never been hugged before?"

"That's a hug? A real one? I gave one once. It wasn't reciprocated."

Now Jody wanted to cry herself.

"You are upset."

"What? No, I'm fine. Castiel - would you like to come inside? Have some tea? I've got honey."

Not saying anything, Castiel stood and Jody a second after him. She led him into her house and he took in his surroundings with quiet wonder.

"You have a lovely home."

"It's a mess," Jody said, walking towards the stove.

Castiel followed her and stood on the other side of the island counter, watching her add water to a kettle.

"Why don't you wait in the living room? It's just through the door."

Castiel nodded and stalked off. Jody watched him go and shook her head to herself. A thought passed over her that maybe she should call Sam or Dean, let them know that their friend was in town all by himself. Suddenly, she heard the soft, tinkle-crash of something hitting the floor in the next room over.

"Castiel?" she asked, just as the teapot began to whistle.

She removed it from the stove just as Castiel walked back into the kitchen holding a small, angel figurine she'd had on a shelf above the couch, the figure in one hand and two broken off wing parts in the other.

"I-I was reaching for it and - and..."

"Cas," Jody said, coming around the counter. "Cas, it's okay."

"The angel is broken," he said, holding out the pieces for her.

Jody looked into his eyes, which had become glassy. She had T-minus five seconds before a total breakdown so Jody did the only thing she could - she pulled him into a full body hug and waited. A few tense minutes passed where she honestly felt nothing but stupid but eventually she felt her hug being returned. Sure he stood a little too stiffly but she could tell that he was at the very least trying.

"Come on," she said, moving away and pouring the hot water into a mug with a teabag already set in it.

She pushed forward the container with sugar and went to her closet to grab both the honey and a half-empty tube of superglue. Castiel squirted some honey into his tea until he noticed the little tube.

"What's that?" he asked, all wide eyed and innocently.

"This," Jody said, "is something that's going to help that little angel that broke."

Castiel squinted unsurely. "Glue?"

"Yup," Jody said, twisting off the cap and squirting the clear substance on the cracked part of the wing. "Why, what would you use to fix an angel?" she asked while putting the first wing on and holding it in place.

Castiel grabbed the other wing and stared at it, studying its grooves and shape.

"A...a broken angel needs a friend," he said. "They need...they need someone to turn to when things are going _so_ horribly wrong."

"Sure. Yeah. Probably."

"Before they do something stupid like teaming up with a demon to open the door to Purgatory to win a war."

"Wait, what?"

"And then they need their friends because without them then they are nothing. Empty. They cannot hide because hiding only gets you into trouble later, especially when you were the one who made the bad problem in the first place."

"Castiel?"

"And then the only way to fix it is by taking all of the bad stuff and bringing it into your own mind because sacrifice and being a martyr was something that you were taught to do. You were taught and you obey because that is all that you know. That's all you see."

Castiel opened his hand and in the palm of it was a small pile of dust with glue residue on it. The second wing.

"You - you broke…," Jody said before touching him on the arm.

Castiel stared at his hands, his eyes widening and clouding over.

"Everything I lay a hand on breaks."

Jody only took her hand away for a second and blinked. When she looked across the island, Castiel, whoever he was, was gone.

* * *

Hours later and after a good long cry Jody decided it was time to pick up her phone. It rang several times until a tired male voice asked, "What?"

"Dean? Is that you?"

Dean coughed on the other line and asked, "Who is this?"

Jody sighed and looked at the clock next to her bed. It was just after 2 am, much too late for a normal house call. Rubbing her cheek, she sighed and said, "This is Jody Mills."

"Jody? Something going on? Sioux Falls under attack by Frankenstein or something?"

"No, no. I-I wanted to tell you that I got a visit today."

"Okay?"

"From Castiel."

The line went silent for a minute.

"Cas? _He_ found you?"

"Yeah. He was sitting in my garden actually, watching a beehive."

Dean groaned and Jody heard him clicking on a lamp wherever he was. Hopefully it wasn't in that disgusting old cabin Bobby was holed up in before... _before_.

"That seems to be his newest hobby. He still there? Need me to talk to him?"

"Um, no," Jody said, looking around her room and then down where the little one-winged angel was lying beside her. "He left a while ago but..."

"What?"

"He said something _s_ and then something that I think you should know."

There was the sound of rustling and Jody assumed that it was Dean sitting up in his bed.

"Before he left, he broke something and said that 'Everything I lay a hand on breaks.' That was after he said that what a broken angel needs, really needs, is a friend."

Silence again.

"Dean? Are you -?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"Dean, who is he?" Jody asked, wanting to know the answer. _His_ answer. "Who is Castiel?"

Quiet again on the other line. And then - "Castiel is...an ally."

"An ally?"

"Yeah."

Jody breathed in through her nose and out again. "Okay. Thanks. Jus-just wanted to know. He seemed good so…okay. Good night, Dean."

"Night, Jody."

Jody hung up and turned off the light beside her bed before getting comfortable. She didn't bother getting under the covers. She just laid there, staring into the dark until she finally dozed off.

* * *

Over a thousand miles away and hours later, Dean Winchester stared up at the ceiling from the couch he was lying on, thinking. The sun was peeking in through the half-closed window when there was a fluttering sound that lasted for five seconds in the vicinity of the kitchen.

Jumping up from his bed, Dean arrived and found a single, porcelain wing rocking as though it were just put down on the counter in a hurry, next to an empty beer bottle.

* * *

Something was buzzing. Did a bee get into the house yesterday when the door was open? Jody blinked and her phone was vibrating on the bed next to her. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up, Jody activated the screen and she had two texts waiting to be read from some unknown number.

The first one was of a photo of a single wing of a certain currently broken statue that was still beside her on the bed, sent two hours ago.

The second was a three worded message sent just a minute ago.

_He's a friend._

**Author's Note:**

> Was it okay? Just needed to get this one out of my system. Thanks very much for reading.


End file.
